Application migration system

Abstract

An application-centric modernization and migration (AMM) architecture delivers AMM as a service to enterprises to automate migrating applications to new environments. In this regard, the architecture implements data migration functionality in concert with application code migration, environment provisioning, and post-migration configuration. The joint migration of application data and application code effectively provides a complete migration of an application. The architecture may also define and deliver a GUI portal through which an application owner provides application-specific metadata to drive the AMM.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 defining an application service center interface; 
 delivering the application service center interface through a communication interface to an application owner; 
 registering a specific application through the application service center interface, including:
 responsive to operator input at the application service center interface, identifying an application database required for execution of the specific application, the operator input including a request to register the application database for the specific application; 
 identifying a source environment in which the specific application currently runs; 
 assigning the specific application to an application-specific metadata model; 
 adding, into the application-specific metadata model, application database identification metadata and application database location metadata characterizing the application database; and 
 adding, into the application-specific metadata model, source environment metadata that characterizes the source environment in which the specific application currently runs; and 
 
 initiating migration of the specific application through the application service center interface, including:
 requesting deployment of a target environment for the specific application; 
 recognizing that the application database is required for execution of the specific application; and 
 controlling migration of the application database into the target environment; and 
 controlling migration of the specific application into the target environment by:
 generating multiple different hardware mappings to the target environment for a hardware component accessible within the source environment; and 
 providing individual ones of the multiple different hardware mappings to respective accept-mapping selectors within the application service center interface to facilitate an operator selection among the multiple different hardware mappings via an input device, each of the accept-mapping selectors detailing a different hardware configuration, each of the different hardware mappings including:
 a specific number of processor cores; 
 a specific amount of disk space; and 
 a specific amount of Random Access Memory (RAM); 
 
 for each hardware component in the individual ones of the multiple different hardware mappings, providing a listing of alternate mappings for the hardware component for display at a time of selection of a graphical user interface (GUI) element within the application service center interface; 
 providing a listing of pending items to a pending items panel in the application service center interface, the pending items including instances of hardware components for which provisioning is currently pending; and 
 for each of the pending items, providing a change request indicator displayed separately from the listing, the change request indicator configured to open a detail view responsive to operator input, the detail view including an option to request a change to the respective pending item, the option to request the change including an option to request to change:
 a priority of the pending item; 
 a requestor name for the pending item; 
 a risk level for the pending item; 
 an impact level for the pending item; 
 a configuration item for the pending item; 
 a category for the pending item; 
 a state for the pending item; 
 an assigned group for the pending item; 
 an authorization approval of the pending item; and 
 a description of the pending item. 
 
 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, through the application service center interface, an identification of the target environment. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 executing mapping rules to determine the target environment from the source environment. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , where:
 the source environment is a first virtualized environment; and 
 the target environment is a second virtualized environment. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , where:
 the source environment is a non-virtualized environment; and 
 the target environment is a virtualized environment. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , where:
 controlling migration of the application database comprises issuing provisioning instructions for instantiating the application database in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , where:
 controlling migration of the application database comprises issuing provisioning instructions for instantiating the application database into the target environment as a virtualized application database. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , where:
 controlling migration of the application database comprises identifying specific data fields in the application database as masked data fields; and 
 preventing data entries in the masked data fields from appearing in the application database in the target environment by clearing the masked entries during transfer to the target environment. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 executing post-migration configuration on the specific application in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , where:
 the executing comprises: reconfiguring the specific application to access the application database in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       11. A system comprising:
 machine interface circuitry defining an application service center interface; 
 a communication interface circuitry configured to deliver the application service center interface to an application owner; and 
 application configuration circuitry configured to:
 register a specific application through the application service center interface by:
 responsive to operator input at the application service center interface, identifying an application database required for execution of the specific application, the operator input including a request to register the application database for the specific application; 
 identifying a source environment in which the specific application currently runs; 
 assigning the specific application to an application-specific metadata model; 
 adding, into the application-specific metadata model, application database identification metadata and application database location metadata characterizing the application database; and 
 adding, into the application-specific metadata model, source environment metadata that characterizes the source environment in which the specific application currently runs; and 
 
 initiate migration of the specific application through the application service center interface by:
 requesting deployment of a target environment for the specific application; 
 recognizing that the specific application relies on the application database during execution of the specific application; and 
 controlling migration of the application database into the target environment; and 
 controlling migration of the specific application into the target environment by:
 generating multiple different hardware mappings to the target environment for a hardware component accessible within the source environment; 
 providing individual ones of the multiple different hardware mappings to respective accept-mapping selectors within the application service center interface to facilitate an operator selection among the multiple different hardware mappings via an input device, each of the accept-mapping selectors detailing a different hardware configuration, each of the different hardware mappings including: 
 a specific number of processor cores; 
 a specific amount of disk space; and 
 a specific amount of Random Access Memory (RAM); 
 
 for each hardware component in the individual ones of the multiple different hardware mappings, providing a listing of alternate mappings for the hardware component for display at a time of selection of a graphical user interface (GUI) element within the application service center interface; 
 providing a listing of pending items to a pending items panel in the application service center interface, the pending items including instances of hardware components for which provisioning is currently pending; and 
 for each of the pending items, providing a change request indicator displayed separately from the listing, the change request indicator configured to open a detail view responsive to operator input, the detail view including an option to request a change to the respective pending item, the option to request the change including an option to change:
 a priority of the pending item; 
 a requestor name for the pending item; 
 a risk level for the pending item; 
 an impact level for the pending item; 
 a configuration item for the pending item; 
 a category for the pending item; 
 a state for the pending item; 
 an assigned group for the pending item; 
 an authorization approval of the pending item; and 
 a description of the pending item. 
 
 
 
 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 11 , where:
 the application-specific metadata model further comprises an identification of the target environment received through the application service center interface. 
 
     
     
       13. The system of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 mapping rules configured to determine the target environment from the source environment. 
 
     
     
       14. The system of  claim 11 , where:
 the application configuration circuitry is configured to issue provisioning instructions for instantiating the application database in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 11 , where:
 the application configuration circuitry is configured to issue provisioning instructions for instantiating the application database into the target environment as a virtualized application database. 
 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 masked data field identifiers that identifying specific data fields in the application database as masked data fields; and where: 
 the application configuration circuitry is configured to prevent data entries in the masked data fields from appearing in the application database in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       17. A system comprising:
 machine interface circuitry defining an application service center interface as a set of graphical user interfaces; 
 a communication interface circuitry configured to deliver the application service center interface to an application owner; and 
 application configuration circuitry configured to:
 control application migration of a specific application through the application service center interface by:
 responsive to operator input at the application service center interface, identifying an application database required for execution of the specific application, the operator input including a request to register the application database for the specific application; 
 identifying a source environment in which the specific application currently runs; 
 assigning the specific application to an application-specific metadata model; 
 adding, into the application-specific metadata model, application database location metadata characterizing the application database; 
 adding, into the application-specific metadata model, source environment metadata that characterizes the source environment in which the specific application currently runs; and 
 
 initiate migration of the specific application through the application service center interface by:
 deriving a target environment for the specific application from the source environment metadata by:
 generating multiple different hardware mappings to the target environment for a hardware component accessible within the source environment; 
 providing individual ones of the multiple different hardware mappings to respective accept-mapping selectors within the application service center interface to facilitate an operator selection among the multiple different hardware mappings via an input device, each of the accept-mapping selectors detailing a different hardware configuration, each of the different hardware mappings including: 
 a specific number of processor cores; 
 a specific amount of disk space; and 
 a specific amount of Random Access Memory (RAM); 
 
 for each hardware component in the individual ones of the multiple different hardware mappings, providing a listing of alternate mappings for the hardware component for display at a time of selection of a graphical user interface (GUI) element within the application service center interface; 
 providing a listing of pending items to a pending items panel in the application service center interface, the pending items including instances of hardware components for which provisioning is currently pending; 
 for each of the pending items, providing a change request indicator displayed separately from the listing, the change request indicator configured to open a detail view responsive to operator input, the detail view including an option to request a change to the respective pending item, the option to request the change including an option to change:
 a priority of the pending item; 
 a requestor name for the pending item; 
 a risk level for the pending item; 
 an impact level for the pending item; 
 a configuration item for the pending item; 
 a category for the pending item; 
 a state for the pending item; 
 an assigned group for the pending item; 
 an authorization approval of the pending item; and 
 a description of the pending item; 
 
 requesting deployment of the target environment for the specific application; 
 recognizing that the specific application relies on the application database for its functionality; and 
 controlling a joint migration of the application database and the specific application into the target environment. 
 
 
 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 17 , where:
 the application configuration circuitry is further configured to: 
 executing a post-migration configuration on the specific application in the target environment, including configuring the specific application to access the application database in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 17 , where:
 the application configuration circuitry is configured to issue provisioning instructions for instantiating the application database in the target environment. 
 
     
     
       20. The system of  claim 17 , where:
 the application configuration circuitry is configured to issue provisioning instructions for instantiating the application database into the target environment as a virtualized application database.